Presence: Guided Meditation

inquiry & integration

Inquiry: Will you dedicate some awareness to recognizing that the past and future don’t need your attention right now?

Personal Integration: This practice can be done alone or with a friend, lover, or counselor. Take one to five minutes or longer to contemplate and answer the question. When done with another, it is essential that the listener remains neutral and encourages you by repeating this inquiry as needed to help maintain focus. Just allow yourself to enjoy the awareness that you spend a lot of unneeded time by dwelling upon a past that you can't change, and a future that usually is not helpful. This allows you to come to the greater awareness that you are losing a part of your authentic life by being fixated away from the present. See if you can let this be a motivator to reach your guts that can remind you with a passionate voice, "okay past or okay future I see you, and i'm returning to the present." This is a blessed transition that can guide you back to the now and to potentiate your life.

Inquiry 2: Pesence is always content to be wherever you are. Can you feel how invaluable this is?

Personal Integration 2: Follow the same instructions as above in the monologue or repeating question format. At first the reminder to be present can require an effort or an act of will. This is natural as we are so used to living in the past and future. However as we develop our practice through meditation, inquiry, prayer or simply being alert it can become more and more of our central way of being. It can feel like it is a return home or to our nature. Don't force yourself in any way to try to be in the present. Let it be a natural evolving. Be honest about your level of ease and consistency, and recognize that very few people even cultivate this as a practice. Appreciate whatever desire you have to enjoy this, and whatever is missing let it be an encouragement to practice more if that makes sense to you.

Inquiry 3: Can you allow yourself to be in whatever is your most common emotional state and coexist with an accepting awareness.

Personal Integration 3: Follow the same instructions as above in the monologue or repeating question format. Our emotions frequently take us into the past or future. This is often times the nature of emotion. This needs to be accepted with awareness or our emotions will run our lives. See how much you can go to your most repeating emotional states, and allow an accepting awareness be there which also allows you to be available to the present as well. It would be something like saying to yourself "hello anxiety, I see you and accept you. I also am going to love my friend while you are here. There is room for both of us. It is fine for you to be there, and no need to dominate my attention.

You are making it clear to yourself and your emotions that you are the presence, and all emotions just have their place. They are just not the center of the universe.

Inquiry 4: Will you give some time recognizing that you are the witness or presence itself? What are the qualities and features of this essential state of being?

Personal Integration 4: Follow the same instructions as above in the monologue or repeating question format. As you start to experiment more and more with dwelling in presence what is it like. Is it obvious that you are more observant, independent, receptive, responsive, strong... The qualities of presence are really unlimited. Notice if you can enjoy this realization as you explore. Also notice if you are judging yourself for not being present enough. Allow that to go in its proper place as you realize you are the presence that can say "hello judgment of me not being present enough. I recognize you as a judge, and will not allow you to rob me of my capacity to return to the moment. I am the one that can always come back to the here and now no matter the feelings or conditions. It is my central identity whether I recognize it or not. See if you have the urge, desire of prayer to remind yourself to deepen this identification to foster well being and the capacity to be freer than any other state. Notice how it feels to return each time you remember.

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Presence: Guided Meditation

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A guided meditation using listening, seeing, sensing, silence, witnessing and understanding to deepen the capacity to be in the moment.

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Since 1972, Humanistic Spirituality founder Robert Strock has maintained a private spiritual and therapeutic counseling practice that specializes in purposeful living, relationships, spiritual psychology, and death and dying counseling. Humanistic Spirituality provides various spiritual workshops, guided mediations, and licensed marriage family therapists and licensed social work continuing education courses. Contact us to learn how we can help you find inner peace and spiritual awareness through our counseling, or our free guided meditations, videos, audios, writings, introspective guises and more. A warm welcome from the team at Humanistic Spirituality.